AFTER a solid PBA Philippine Cup showing, Meralco is deadset on doing better in the next conference.
Coach Norman Black expects nothing less from the team especially with the help of import Johnny O’Bryant, who he thinks is what the doctors ordered for the Bolts in the Commissioner’s Cup.
Although he hasn’t seen O’Bryant practice yet as the NBA veteran only arrived in the country on Wednesday morning, the Meralco coach already speaks highly of the 29-year-old import
[Read: Meralco taps Johnny O'Bryant as import for Commissioner's Cup]
“I think we hit a homerun in this guy. But we’ll wait and see. Wait till the games start,” said Black. “But I think we got a good one.”
Less than 24 hours since coming over, the first order of the day for the 6-foot-9 O’Bryant was to see the Bolts play at the Smart Araneta Coliseum against the San Miguel Beermen for the last finals berth in the Philippine Cup.
Too bad, Meralco lost the sudden-death game, 100-89.
But the semis stint showed the Bolts can compete with the league’s top contenders, giving Black a silver lining that all would be even better in the mid-season conference with O’Bryant expected to lead the charge.
“If we can be strong enough to compete in the all-Filipino, and then we can get a good import, that would make a difference to get us over the hump,” he said.
O’Bryant was a second-round pick of the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2014 NBA draft who also had stints with Charlotte and Denver.
“So we just want to get a solid player, somebody who we know is good, offensively and defensively, and who can rebound the basketball,” said Black. “In our case, we don’t want a wingman. We want a guy who also play in the paint because that’s our weakness.”
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